Meet the Artist

Champagne Reception

Saturday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.

Refreshments will
be served.

By Mike Cram

Work of HeART Gallery is proud to present visual poet Martha Casey-Dirker as the featured ‘Artist of the Month’ for January 2011.

Casey-Dirker is a working mom with three children who manages to squeeze in time to take photographs of locales around the Mountain Communities.

Martha was given her first camera and light meter by her father at age 9. Her subject matter ranges from wildflowers to scraggly old ponderosa pines and windblown piñons.

Her eye is drawn to remnants left by residents from an earlier time—abandoned stone homes, rusty corrugated steel shops and crumbling outbuildings, dilapidated cattle ramps and corrals.

Beautiful rock formations painted yellows and greens from mosses and lichen, stained shades of red from iron and blemished with the green oxidation of copper.

The rolling hills of Gorman and western reaches of Mil Potrero are littered with lupine, poppies, paint brush, crossed by rustic old wood and broken barbed wire fences.

Casey-Dirker’s panoramic vistas from Mt. Pinos and Mt. Abel leave us breathless. The coloring in the photos illuminates striking imagery, with the feeling of oils and water colors or pastels.

This is how Martha describes her work: “My photography is about capturing the beauty of nature, of landscapes and culture and of moments in time with natural portraits.

“I’m inspired by weather, light, texture and fleeting moments. My job is to take my vision and to translate it into a photo that evokes passion in people; it is about translating a vision that cannot be put into words.”

Meet the artist Saturday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Work of HeART Gallery in Frazier Park.

This is part of the December 31, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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